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Cell Phone Rehab

It’s funny, we live in a time where we have never been more connected to each other: Heck, most of us have texted, instagrammed, snapchated, facebooked, and or tweeted before we’ve even finished our breakfast and started our day. And that’s just the beginning. Our cell phones have become like another appendage on our bodies. Wherever we go, there they are also.

And yet for all they do to keep us connected, they are at the very same time one of the primary reasons that we are becoming less and less connected with each other. Many of us are becoming preoccupied and distracted to the point where we are quickly losing the ability to be present to one another in any meaningful way. We are so overstimulated that we literally don’t know how pay attention to our own lives much less to what is really happening with one another. And so, I would like to offer a suggestion for each of us to consider

What if we made the courageous decision to check into cell phone rehab and intentionally begin to limit the time we spend being connected to our phones and all they open us up to? I’m not necessarily talking cold turkey. But what if we could at least put them away during our meals? Would that be such a crime against our humanity? Or what if we set limits for when we started and finished the day with them? What if we begin to intentionally disconnect so that we can truly reconnect again with our own souls and with the people we love the most?

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not blaming all of the world’s ills on our technological advancements, many of them have served us well. But what I am saying is that it’s rapid advancement has come at the expense of and even stunted the growth of our collective humanity.

And because of that, I think it is time for all of us addicts to create quiet spaces in our lives in order to tend to our souls, to listen for God’s voce, to look at and listen to our own lives, and also to listen to the people we love. It’s time for cell phone rehab. It will require some courage. The first step is admitting we have a problem.